MIT Technology Review - desalinationhttp://www.technologyreview.com/tagged/desalination/
enDesalination out of Desperationhttp://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/533446/desalination-out-of-desperation/
<p>Severe droughts are forcing researchers to rethink how technology can increase the supply of fresh water.</p><p>Even in drought-stricken California, San Diego stands out. It gets less rain than parched Los Angeles or Fresno. The region has less groundwater than many other parts of the state. And more than 80 percent of water for homes and businesses is imported from sources that are increasingly stressed. The Colorado River is so overtaxed that it rarely reaches the sea; water originating in the Sacramento River delta, more than 400 miles north, was rationed by state officials this year, cutting off some farmers in California’s Central Valley from their main source of irrigation. San Diego County, hot, dry, and increasingly populous, offers a preview of where much of the world is headed. So too does a recent decision by the county government: it is building the largest seawater desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere, at a cost of $1 billion.</p>Tue, 16 Dec 2014 05:00:00 +0000juniper.friedman533446 at http://www.technologyreview.comOne Way to Solve Fracking’s Dirty Problemhttp://www.technologyreview.com/news/519416/one-way-to-solve-frackings-dirty-problem/
<p>GE has demonstrated technology aimed at addressing one of the biggest challenges with fracking: water pollution.</p><p>Hydraulic fracturing—or fracking—has unlocked vast amounts of oil and natural gas from shale rock in the United States, and has the potential to do the same around the globe (see “<a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/415725/natural-gas-changes-the-energy-map/">Natural Gas Changes the Energy Map</a>”). But fracking also consumes huge quantities of water, which it contaminates with a heady mix of toxic chemicals, a problem that threatens to slow this expansion.</p>Tue, 24 Sep 2013 16:15:34 +0000juniper.friedman519416 at http://www.technologyreview.comSun-Assisted Desalinationhttp://www.technologyreview.com/news/416726/sun-assisted-desalination/
<p>Energy-saving process uses free heat to desalinate seawater.</p><p>A Canadian startup has built a pilot desalination plant in Vancouver that uses a quarter of the energy of conventional plants to remove salt from seawater. The process relies on concentration gradients, and the natural tendency of sodium and chloride ions–the key components of salt–to flow from higher to lower salinity concentrations. If the system can be scaled up it could offer a cheaper way to bring drinking water to the planet’s most parched regions while leaving behind a much lower carbon footprint than other desalination methods.</p>Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000digitalservices416726 at http://www.technologyreview.comA Low-Energy Water Purifierhttp://www.technologyreview.com/news/411583/a-low-energy-water-purifier/
<p>A Yale spinoff hopes to solve the big problem with desalination.</p><p>Access to clean water is severely limited in many parts of the world, and while desalination plants can separate freshwater from sea and brackish water, they typically require large amounts of electricity or heat to do so. This has prevented desalination from being economically viable in many poorer cities and countries.</p>Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:00:00 +0000digitalservices411583 at http://www.technologyreview.comPurifying Water with Nano-particleshttp://www.technologyreview.com/news/410909/purifying-water-with-nano-particles/
<p>A company says 3-D nanoparticles boost the efficiency of water purification.</p><p>Adding nanoparticles to a water purifying membrane can double its efficiency, according to a startup company based in Los Angeles. With global water usage on the increase and fresh water in limited supply, the company, <a href="http://www.nanoh2o.com/index.php5" target="_blank">NanoH2O</a>, says its novel approach could make such purification technology a viable solution to a growing problem.</p>Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0000digitalservices410909 at http://www.technologyreview.comDesalination Made Simplerhttp://www.technologyreview.com/news/410532/desalination-made-simpler/
<p>A new chlorine-tolerant material may streamline desalination processes.</p><p>Getting access to drinking water is a daily challenge for more than one billion people in the world. Desalination may help relieve such water-stressed populations <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/16977/?a=f" target="_blank">by filtering salt from abundant seawater,</a> and there are more than 7,000 desalination plants worldwide, 250 operating in the United States alone. However, the membranes that these plants use to filter out salt tend to break down when exposed to an essential ingredient in the process: chlorine. </p>Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:00:00 +0000digitalservices410532 at http://www.technologyreview.com